People Appear to Be Less Concerned With Eating Healthy at Night

It seems that people around the world are full of good intentions in regards to the healthiness of their diets, yet new findings prove that as the day progresses, those intentions could be falling by the wayside.

Eatery allows its users to record, rate, and track the healthiness of their meals over time.

According to sample data of nearly 500,000 meals consumed by users in 50 countries over a period of five months, it appears that the majority of people are starting their day at around 10 a.m. with a healthy breakfast, but by 10 p.m., the data shows that they are indulging in more unhealthy selections.

Although the data does not explain why this trend exists, it does appear to illustrate that people across the globe have similar eating habits.

In terms of why, we can only make educated guesses. There is a 1.7 percent overall decrease in healthiness of what’s eaten for every hour of the day that passes after breakfast. That’s as true in Tokyo as it is in San Francisco as it is in São Paulo. It teaches us about something fundamental about the way people make decisions about food—and decisions in general.

Some researchers suggest that the lack of healthy food options in the late evening and early morning hours could be the reasons for this trend. While others suggest that people are using up all of their available resources throughout the day, making them more susceptible to all of the late night temptations.